“The future? Whenever that is. I’m just trying to get into the now.” — Van Morrison
We met them as kindergartners — photos, above right — and now we see how they have grown and are adjusting to middle school.
Tracks to ’26, Hood River News’ annual check-in with six local children, started in 2014, and picks up in the sixth grade with Jess Aubert of Parkdale, Diego Bustos of Hood River, Trinity Evans of Cascade Locks, Jack Miller of Hood River, Sofia Rodriguez of Odell and Nicholas Tuttle of Hood River.
We’ll talk with the same students every year until they graduate from high school in 2026.
In 2019, they had two new questions:
1. What’s middle school been like?
and
2. How do you feel about getting closer to high school and growing up?
These are in addition to the annual questions:
What’s a good thing that happened to you today or you look forward to?
What’s something you learned today or recently?
What’s a challenge?
What things do you enjoy doing?
What do you want to be when you grow up?
What do you think about the future?
Middle school brings new experiences, such as learning multiple class schedules and hour-long bus rides to and from school, as well as engineering projects, trying out theater, learning to play a musical instrument or, in the case of Wy’east students Jess and Sofia, running cross country. They were interviewed together (a first).
“It was tiring sometimes. It was challenging,” Jess said about cross country. Sofia said, “It was tiring and I improved a lot.”
In general, these young folks are forging new friendships and expanding their interests, and have developed an ease in talking to the interviewer, which is always face-to-face.
This confidence came out clear in talking with Sofia and Jess when I realized I had almost forgotten to ask one of the recurring questions. Jess smiled and said, “In past years you’ve called and said, ‘I forgot to ask you a question’.”
“I remember I did that one year,” I said.
Sofia added, “I think you did it to me twice.”
“Really? I forgot more than once?”
“I think so,” Sofia said, as they both laughed.
I look forward to this more every year.
— Kirby Neumann-Rea
Jess Aubert
1. “It’s a lot more to memorize, and there’s a lot of, like schedules and places you have to be at certain times. It’s kind of complicating at times.”
1. “It’s a lot more to memorize, and there’s a lot of, like schedules and places you have to be at certain times. It’s kind of complicating at times.”
2. “I look forward to playing with my friends today.”
3. “I learned about the Mayas and Incas, that the Incas used floating rafts and planted more crops in them for farmland, they would anchor them to trees in the water. The size of this cafeteria, they’d stick logs in the ground to like a square and pile dirt and keep on going and plant on top for more farm land.”
4. “A challenge for me was a math test today. We’re doing decimals and fractions, multiplying and dividing them. It was pretty challenging.”
5. “I enjoy playing with my brother and playing Legos. I’m involved in baseball, skiing, every Thursday and Sunday we have dryland practice. Recently we went down to Hood River and we had to do the Second Street stairs. They’re a quarter of a mile long and we had to go up and down them five times. It was tiring.”
6. “I honestly do not know.”
7. “A lot of new stuff, like technology, a lot of that.”
8. “I feel more grown up. I’m 12, not 11 now.”
Sofia Rodriguez
1. “It’s different, very different from elementary school because you have six periods instead of a couple of classes. There’s a lot of teachers and it’s not difficult, so far.”
1. “It’s different, very different from elementary school because you have six periods instead of a couple of classes. There’s a lot of teachers and it’s not difficult, so far.”
2. “I look forward for the tryouts for ‘Annie,’ the play here at school.”
3. “Today I learned in biliteracy reading about what happened in Mexico with (the son of) El Chapo, who was doing violent stuff who went into jail but the president freed him.”
4. “Maybe when I learned about a whole new topic, at first it’s hard to like remember every small detail. Like today, I learned the same thing Jess did about the Mayas and Incas and it was kind of hard to remember everything. To like, put it in order.”
5. “I enjoy playing sports. There’s not many options out of school, but maybe with my family. I also like to read. I’m doing Oregon Battle of the Books and so I have to read all the books and write all the details.”
6. “When I grow up, I’m thinking of being maybe a teacher, a doctor or a lawyer.”
7. “When I think of the future I think of different, maybe more complicated, and I had a word in mind and I forgot: Advanced.”
8. “More mature. I have a longer schedule and have to memorize more things, and I have different grade system and I have to keep my grades up.”
Trinity Evans
1. “It’s been fun, a lot of hard stuff but I’ve gotten used to it. I’ve been able to memorize my classes and where they are.”
1. “It’s been fun, a lot of hard stuff but I’ve gotten used to it. I’ve been able to memorize my classes and where they are.”
2. “I got a good grade on my reading test. It was vocabulary.”
3. “Not really. It’s mostly like reviews because I have another test tomorrow. Fractions in math now, dividing and multiplying fractions. It’s kind of hard and also kind of easy, because some it I’ve learned and I’m used to but some of I’m getting used to.”
4. “Trying to keep up with all my homework, because in elementary school I was one of those people who didn’t do all my homework, but now have to do my homework to keep my grades up. I sometimes do it as soon as I get home depending on how much I have, but if I don’t have too much I wait until later in the day.”
5. “I like to do band. It’s pretty fun, and math as well. I play the trumpet; I switched from clarinet to trumpet because the clarinet wasn’t really my instrument and the trumpet is easier to play. I like it.”
6. “Probably a musician, something like that, I don’t know.”
7. “I don’t know, honestly, I haven’t been thinking about the future a lot.”
8. “I don’t know how to answer that.”
Jack Miller
1. “It’s more difficult than elementary school; the learning’s harder and knowing if it’s an A day or a B day and what classes to go to. I’m used to having smaller classes, like 25, but now some of my classes are like 36.”
1. “It’s more difficult than elementary school; the learning’s harder and knowing if it’s an A day or a B day and what classes to go to. I’m used to having smaller classes, like 25, but now some of my classes are like 36.”
2. “I look forward to movement in sixth period, it’s like PE, you just play games and stuff.”
3. “Probably … like we had to write an essay and learn how to write an essay in language arts. It has to be about 400 words and that’s a lot of words. The word choices (the teacher) only allows us to do like ‘if’ once.”
4. “Language arts and reading. It’s just like, harder than the math and stuff.”
5. ‘“Video games, biking, football, and sports, and basketball.“
6. “A software programmer, like program video games and stuff.”
7. “It’s going to be really different, probably like more robots than there are now, more like electronics, higher tech electronics.”
8. “Good. I don’t know. I just do.”
Diego Bustos
1. “It’s fun. It’s bigger and there’s more things go do, like PE and Engineering and Green Design, and we get to build greenhouses and a tiny house. It’s a design of one but we get to build out of cardboard. In engineering we get to make ring tones and key chains and fun stuff. We have this app and you can put sounds from this thing and you have to put into a thing and it plays it (the ring tone).”
1. “It’s fun. It’s bigger and there’s more things go do, like PE and Engineering and Green Design, and we get to build greenhouses and a tiny house. It’s a design of one but we get to build out of cardboard. In engineering we get to make ring tones and key chains and fun stuff. We have this app and you can put sounds from this thing and you have to put into a thing and it plays it (the ring tone).”
2. “Yesterday I went trick or treating. I was a Teletubby-slash-dragon. My mom got a dragon costume and then she transformed it into a Teletubby: Dipsy, the green one. My key chain is going to be done today. It says ‘Milo,’ which is my dog’s name. (Diego added that “he doesn’t like to play, whenever I throw a ball he doesn’t do anything. He’s a lazy guy. He acts like a cat.)”
3. “Dividing fractions. We had a test on it yesterday.”
4. “Reading, because I don’t like reading that much and you have to read for 30 minutes every day, for homework. There’s reading signatures and my mom has to sign it.”
5. “I like playing football, basketball, lacrosse. Our (Gorge Youth) football team won the championship first place. I like playing video games, too: ‘Rainbow 6: Siege.’”
6. “I don’t know yet.”
7. “What’s going to happen? A lot of pollution, there’s going to be a bunch of gas everywhere, and smoke.”
8. “I don’t know.”
Nicholas Tuttle
1. “I like it a lot, it’s really fun and different from elementary school, I like how you can move around more, in elementary you just stayed in the same class.”
1. “I like it a lot, it’s really fun and different from elementary school, I like how you can move around more, in elementary you just stayed in the same class.”
2. ”I’m going to one of my friend’s house for a Halloween party.”
3. “To go trick or treating earlier because there were no houses, I still got a lot, but there were a lot with no candy left. I went behind Rosauers by Horizon.”
4. “Reading still a little bit. I have dyslexia and when I read the words are all blurry and mixed around. I found out I had dyslexia in second grade. It’s, like, hard to read sometimes. It’s easier to read at the start but when you get focused it’s all, like, blurry, and the words get all mixed up.”
5. “I like playing football, I just got my season over with and we won our last game 16-14. I’m just starting baseball in like a month and a half, Hood River Whitecaps. I play pitcher and third base.”
6. “I want to be a football player in the NFL.”
7. “I think it’s going to be good. I don’t really know.”
8. “I am pretty nervous about high school and excited at the same time.”
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